Latest Gear Live Videos

Thursday November 13, 2008 2:26 am

DC Comics Review: Detective Comics #850

I’ve enjoyed Paul Dini‘s run on “Detective Comics” so far. I’ve also enjoyed this story arc of his: Heart of Hush which ends with this issue #850. Hush has returned to exact revenge on Bruce Wayne. Thomas Elliot aka Hush hates Bruce Wayne because his abusive mother thought more highly of Bruce than her own son Tommy. Hush decides to attack Bruce by attacking the woman he loves most in the world: Catwoman. He attacks at Bruce’s heart figuratively and attacks Catwoman literally by taking out her heart.

This was a good issue. A good ending to this story. Batman retrieves Catwoman’s heart and has it put back in her body thanks to the surgical skills of Dr. Mid-nite and Mister Terrific of the Justice Society. The issue had a lot of action, good drama, and some fine moments that will give fan boys something to squeal about like Alfred kicking Hush’s butt.

I’m not a huge fan of Dustin Nguyen‘s art, but he does a good job of visual storytelling. The sequence where Alfred fights Hush moves panel-to-panel very nicely and does a good job of keeping the drama of the situation intense. Batman crashing through a window and taking out Hush is nice and the full page splash of Hush entering the Bat-Cave for the first time gives you the same sense of awe that Hush feels even though as a reader you’ve seen the Bat-Cave a million times.

Catwoman gets some revenge on Hush. I won’t spoil. It sets things up for the January two-part storyline that will have Catwoman battling Hush on her own. Issue #850 is a milestone; 50 more issues unitl #900 and a 150 more until issue #1,000. With this milestone it’s nice to see that Dini gives a nod to history with an appearance of Slam Bradley who first graced the pages of “Detective Comics” all the way back in issue #1.

This is the last issue before the big reveal of the fate of Batman at the hands of the Black Glove in issue #681 of “Batman”. Following that issue we see a two-part storyline by legendary Bat-writer and editor: Denny O’Neil. The final page of this issue features a pin-up page of Batman and Robin. The Robin in this image is a Robin much younger than Tim, the current Robin. Also, on the page before that, we see a preview of the cover of Detective #851. It features the cape and cowl of Batman hung up and Nightwing staring at it. Is this a red herring? Or is it another clue to Dick Grayson becoming Batman and is the younger we see Damien? We’ll know more in two weeks when “Batman” #681 hits stores November 26.